County residents live a longer than average life, report says

July 14 – If you live in DeSoto County, you can expect to live a long life, at least longer than average. That’s according to a new report on the average life expectancy of Mississippians and what counties have residents who live the longest. 

The report comes from Stacker and is based on information gained from the 2024 County Health Rankings and Roadmaps of the University of Wisconsin Populations Health Institute. With the data, Stacker was able to find out what counties in the state had the longest life expectancy.  

DeSoto County falls in the top 10 at number nine for longest life expectancy at 74.8 years, which is 2.3 years higher than the state average of 72.5 years.  The top five reporting counties in order are: Lamar (78.1), Rankin (77.4), Kemper (76.5), Lafayette (76.4) and Greene (76.1). 

According to Stacker, “Life expectancy measures the average number of years from birth a person can expect to live and is calculated based on the number of deaths in a given time period and the average number of people at risk of dying during that period. Counties with unreliable or insufficient data were excluded from the analysis. Mortality data came from the National Vital Statistics System.”

More detailed information about DeSoto County is found at the County Health Rankings website.

Of note, another study printed on Stacker indicated the counties with the shortest average life span and Tunica County had the lowest average at 65.4 years of age. 

You can read the entire report on the Stacker website.